Eating raw questions

[Raineyrocks]

I've noticed that some people on here are eating raw but I have some questions.

I would really like to go 100% raw asap but how in the world can you afford it?

Organic produce is so expensive!  When I was eating raw years ago, I could afford 2 separate,(sp?), grocery lists and organic food including raw almond butter etc.   Now I can't afford that, so if my family doesn't want to go raw, how can I buy separate stuff for me and regular stuff for them?
What are simple, cheap, nutritional things to eat?  I hate prepping food even though I used to like it.

[thinkliberty]

Grow your own sprouts, they can be grown year round inside your house. (Buy seeds in bulk online.)

A food dehydrator and a vacuum jar or bag machine (like http://www.instructables.com/id/S8G2DHJFHY0HF1K) will save you a lot of money, if you can grow your own food. (making your own food dehydrator is easy, you need screens to lay the food on, a heat source and a fan. The best one I have seen was built from a dryer that was gotten for free on craigslist. They ripped it apart and used the heating element with a low powered fan... it dries in bulk.)

You can season the veggies and store it raw. It goes well with fresh veggies or by itself. 

Look for glass jars at goodwill, garage sales and craigslist.

Zucchini chips are one of my favorite foods. Everyone always has way to many and I get to eat them all!

[Raineyrocks]

Grow your own sprouts, they can be grown year round inside your house. (Buy seeds in bulk online.)

A food dehydrator and a vacuum jar or bag machine (like http://www.instructables.com/id/S8G2DHJFHY0HF1K) will save you a lot of money, if you can grow your own food. (making your own food dehydrator is easy, you need screens to lay the food on, a heat source and a fan. The best one I have seen was built from a dryer that was gotten for free on craigslist. They ripped it apart and used the heating element with a low powered fan... it dries in bulk.)

You can season the veggies and store it raw. It goes well with fresh veggies or by itself. 

Look for glass jars at goodwill, garage sales and craigslist.

Zucchini chips are one of my favorite foods. Everyone always has way to many and I get to eat them all!

Thanks, they're all great ideas, I don't grow my own food though, we don't have a lawn.  We have a weird yard with wood chips, (I guess) and I wish we would've thought about a lot of things before we decided on the house we have now.  I could always grow indoors or on the deck in the summer but there's no room inside and we have lots of wildlife so it makes me nervous to grow on the deck in the summer.

I have dehydrator but I get "stuck" with ideas then I end up getting bored of eating salads and go right back to frozen waffles and stuff.   I did have this awesome fallafel recipe made out of sprouts and soaked nuts but I can't find it, not even online. 

Should I just go back to raw unorganically?   It's probably the only way I can afford it.  I do have raw recipe books but like I said, all the prep drives me nuts.

[MTPorcupine3]

So far this fall I've made dill pickles, pickled peppers, kefir, and kimchi, all raw. Soon to be made: sauerkraut. Fermented foods such as these make for raw, enzymatically active, probiotic supplements that go well with any non-sweet meals and help balance out any cooked food that you do eat.

A book I highly recommend is Wild Fermentation that teaches everything from bread, beer and other adult beverages, yoghurt, and things you've never heard of. My copy is misplaced or disappeared.

Perhaps we can have a Wild Fermentation party where we make stuff as a class or team.

[MTPorcupine3]

When I saw Kat's post on SCOBY it reminded me of another fermented beverage I've got going: kombucha.

[Raineyrocks]

So far this fall I've made dill pickles, pickled peppers, kefir, and kimchi, all raw. Soon to be made: sauerkraut. Fermented foods such as these make for raw, enzymatically active, probiotic supplements that go well with any non-sweet meals and help balance out any cooked food that you do eat.

A book I highly recommend is Wild Fermentation that teaches everything from bread, beer and other adult beverages, yoghurt, and things you've never heard of. My copy is misplaced or disappeared.

Perhaps we can have a Wild Fermentation party where we make stuff as a class or team.

Wow, that's great!  I tried to make raw sauerkraut before and followed the recipe to the "T" and when I opened it there were tons of bugs I've never even seen before.    I'd love to learn how to ferment certain foods, it's very good for you.  The party idea sounds great, I just doubt my success.   

Even the cooked food I make comes out lousy so I've been buying pre-packaged soups and throwing them in the slow cooker. 

There was a delicious raw cookie recipe I made before but it was made out of organic, raw, Brazil nuts and I can't afford those anymore.

[Sovereign Curtis]

Grow your own sprouts, they can be grown year round inside your house. (Buy seeds in bulk online.)

A food dehydrator and a vacuum jar or bag machine (like http://www.instructables.com/id/S8G2DHJFHY0HF1K) will save you a lot of money, if you can grow your own food. (making your own food dehydrator is easy, you need screens to lay the food on, a heat source and a fan. The best one I have seen was built from a dryer that was gotten for free on craigslist. They ripped it apart and used the heating element with a low powered fan... it dries in bulk.)

You can season the veggies and store it raw. It goes well with fresh veggies or by itself. 

Look for glass jars at goodwill, garage sales and craigslist.

Zucchini chips are one of my favorite foods. Everyone always has way to many and I get to eat them all!

Thanks, they're all great ideas, I don't grow my own food though, we don't have a lawn.  We have a weird yard with wood chips

HA! And you started the thread about a shroom party, right?

Grow some shrooms on that wood chip lawn
Sell shrooms
Buy raw organics
????????????
PROFIT!

[Raineyrocks]

Grow your own sprouts, they can be grown year round inside your house. (Buy seeds in bulk online.)

A food dehydrator and a vacuum jar or bag machine (like http://www.instructables.com/id/S8G2DHJFHY0HF1K) will save you a lot of money, if you can grow your own food. (making your own food dehydrator is easy, you need screens to lay the food on, a heat source and a fan. The best one I have seen was built from a dryer that was gotten for free on craigslist. They ripped it apart and used the heating element with a low powered fan... it dries in bulk.)

You can season the veggies and store it raw. It goes well with fresh veggies or by itself. 

Look for glass jars at goodwill, garage sales and craigslist.

Zucchini chips are one of my favorite foods. Everyone always has way to many and I get to eat them all!

Thanks, they're all great ideas, I don't grow my own food though, we don't have a lawn.  We have a weird yard with wood chips

HA! And you started the thread about a shroom party, right?

Grow some shrooms on that wood chip lawn
Sell shrooms
Buy raw organics
????????????
PROFIT!

  Yes I did and I must say I really like your way of thinking!    In fact, shrooms are growing all over the darn place, I just don't know how to identify them.

If I learn how to though, I could be rolling in the raw dough, organic of course!

[Sovereign Curtis]

http://www.rogersmushrooms.com/

http://www.shroomery.org/forums/showflat.php/Number/2263556

[MTPorcupine3]

I tried to make raw sauerkraut before and followed the recipe to the "T" and when I opened it there were tons of bugs I've never even seen before. 

Are you sure it wasn't some other letter? Perhaps the sauerkraut wasn't covered in its own juice. My first attempt way back when was a failure for that reason. The trick is to press it down with a plate till the juices come up over the plate with a weight (e.g. gallon water jug) holding it down in the crock or food-grade 5-gallon bucket.

[Raineyrocks]

http://www.rogersmushrooms.com/

http://www.shroomery.org/forums/showflat.php/Number/2263556

Wow, awesome links, thanks! 

This page made me nervous though, (from the first link).

Many mushrooms are poisonous some are deadly poisonous.

We have made every effort to ensure accuracy on this website but, in the end, the responsibility for eating any mushroom or fungus must rest with the individual; for instance there are people who are allergic to all species of mushrooms. If you collect any mushrooms to eat make sure that your identification checks out in every detail. Never eat any wild mushroom until an expert mycologist has checked your identification. Even when you know a mushroom well weather conditions or animal damage can cause differences in appearance that could lead to misidentification.

[Raineyrocks]

I tried to make raw sauerkraut before and followed the recipe to the "T" and when I opened it there were tons of bugs I've never even seen before. 

Are you sure it wasn't some other letter? Perhaps the sauerkraut wasn't covered in its own juice. My first attempt way back when was a failure for that reason. The trick is to press it down with a plate till the juices come up over the plate with a weight (e.g. gallon water jug) holding it down in the crock or food-grade 5-gallon bucket.

Actually I don't remember pressing down the lid that great so that's probably what went wrong. 

When any directions are really long, (to me), I stop paying full attention and just figure my way is good enough.  I guess it's my curse of a short attention span and lacking patience. 

[William Lee]

http://www.rogersmushrooms.com/

http://www.shroomery.org/forums/showflat.php/Number/2263556

Wow, awesome links, thanks! 

This page made me nervous though, (from the first link).

Many mushrooms are poisonous some are deadly poisonous.

We have made every effort to ensure accuracy on this website but, in the end, the responsibility for eating any mushroom or fungus must rest with the individual; for instance there are people who are allergic to all species of mushrooms. If you collect any mushrooms to eat make sure that your identification checks out in every detail. Never eat any wild mushroom until an expert mycologist has checked your identification. Even when you know a mushroom well weather conditions or animal damage can cause differences in appearance that could lead to misidentification.

No responsible mycologist would not include a disclaimer along those lines.  Don't be discouraged. The people listed in the second link are expert mycologists who can verify your mushroom id's. 

You'll want to learn how to take spore prints.  They are very helpful in mushroom id.

http://www.shroomery.org/8404/Spore-printing-Pictorial

These threads about outdoor cultivation may be interesting also.

http://www.shroomery.org/forums/postlist.php/Board/61

http://archives.mycotopia.net/discus/messages/5/48.html

Psilocybe azurescens can grow outside in NH and are much more potent than the more common cubensis.  Psilocybe spores are legal to buy in the U.S. but only "for microscopy".

http://sporeworks.com/store/catalog/Psilocybin-Genera-Spores-Major-and-Minor-p-1-c-250.html

[Pat K]

Now that's eating raw!

[KBCraig]

Now that's eating raw!

Damn the salmonella, full speed ahead!